UNIVERSITY OF UTAH tan STTUTE FOR TEACHER EDUCATION ‘College of Education, 1721 Campus Center Drive oe March 2017 satiate cy, uah ots soseisise Ha antse Sabmeaneae Lauren Silver is one of my top teacher candidate graduating this spring semester from the University of Utah's elementary teacher licensure program. Lauren student taught in a sixth grade classroom at Wasatch Elementary in Salt Lake School District. Through her work at Wasatch, Lauren was able to work with both culturally and linguistically diverse students and she has worked with a strong arts community. Lauren is outstanding in every area of teaching! She has met all the program requirements with exceptional success. Lauren is a professional, collaborative, and a reflective educator who will be a terrific asset to your faculty. ‘The elementary program at the university is time intensive. Lauren, unlike other teacher education Programs, has experienced an entire year at the school. She has experienced teacher-work-week in ‘August. She has felt the importance of establishing an effective management plan at the very beginning of the year and knows how to develop engaging curriculum, Lauren strongly believes in the importance of parental involvement in the school. She has kept parents informed by writing letters home about curriculum, she has called parents to let them know of their son or daughter's behavioral progress, and she has conducted student/parent/teacher conferences with the S.E,P. program. During these conferences, Lauren begins by celebrating the child's strengths followed by setting individual goals. Classroom management comes naturally for Lauren. She is calm and confident and her positive attitude ubs off on the children, As | observe in Lauren's classroom, feel as though | am in a master teacher's classroom; lessons run smoothly and the children enjoy Lauren's presence. Lauren has successfully implemented a wide variety of instructional strategies. She has planned and implemented cooperative learning, direct instruction, peer tutoring, concept teaching, etc. Understanding that children have various learning styles, Lauren consciously meets the needs of many types of learners. Lauren planned and implemented a service learning project which honored local veterans while at the same time, taught her sixth graders about World War Il. The project was a great example of how to implement community engaged scholarship. At this point, lam excited for Lauren to have her own classroom. Her enthusiasm about teaching and learning has inspired me. | thoroughly enjoy knowing Lauren and I'm thrilled to have someone as Professional as she is to join the teaching force. One day, | believe Lauren will be a leader in the education profession. If you have any question, | would be pleased to speak with you at, 801-587-7990. Peggy M‘Candless Elementary Education Coordinator